The author of Stiff, Spook, Bonk, and Packing for Mars, as well as the winner of the American Engineering Societies' Engineering Journalism Award (a category in which, let's be honest, she was the sole entrant), Mary Roach pilots this edition of Science and Nature Writing. Here we find Jonathan Franzen combing through Cypriot orchards to free songbirds from glue traps in "Emptying the Skies," while Jaron Lanier looks in on "The First Church of Robotics" and Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow discuss "The (Elusive) Theory of Everything." Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For this title, as for each of the others, a series editor reviews hundreds of periodicals, then selects between 50 and 100 outstanding works. The guest editor—a recognized expert in the field—then pares the list down to the 20 or so very best pieces.